Online marketing is impossible. At least, it feels that way some days – doesn’t it? A much-anticipated Google algorithm update could sink top rankings overnight and pull once obscure sites into search engine dominance. Can lawyers reasonably expect to successfully market online with such a changing landscape?

In a word, yes, but only by marketing with a solid plan of action.

How does a winning legal online marketing plan look? Not surprisingly, the same approach that will make your law firm an online success is the same approach you likely already use to run your practice. It is also the same method Consultwebs uses in our legal Web marketing strategies:dedicated efforts, honest business principles and data-driven results.

Dedicated 

What does it mean to be dedicated? You persevere. When the seas get stormy you don’t jump ship, but sail on. The same applies to legal marketing. Marketing your firm online would be impossible if you threw in the towel after you took a Rocky Balboa-proportion punch. To be dedicated is to put the time, effort and resources into success. Giving periodic attention to a Web campaign won’t make the cut. Dedicated and consistent diligence will.

Honest

What is it about the snake oil salesman that drives people away? Dishonesty. We don’t trust people who are out to use us, we trust people who are interested in helping us. At Consultwebs, we have always been committed to being ethical and making the investment in high quality employees and resources.

There are many detrimental search marketing tactics still employed on ranking legal websites, but these sites will eventually get penalized by search engines and lose their positioning. We watched several vendors boast about getting away with spammy link building tactics and keyword-stuffing … until they got Google slapped! Grade schoolers are taught “honesty is the best policy.” We should never outgrow that lesson. Honest SEO practices are more time-consuming than shady ones, but the reward far outweighs the investment.

Data-Driven

Data doesn’t lie, and neither will your return on investment. Number crunching is just as important in Web marketing as creative thinking. What is your firm’s most visited webpage? How many conversions have you seen from Web advertising versus television? What is your cost per case?What is the average number of unsubscribes from your email list? Do you know which Social Media platform has been most successful for your firm? These questions and more can be answered by looking at the data and crafting strategies around your findings.

Legal online marketing is a highly competitive niche, with many competitors and consumers in the market, but success is possible. For results that stand above the rest, your law firm needs a marketing strategy that stands above the rest.